The £1.5 billion A14 project upgraded the 21-mile route between Cambridge and Huntington. However, the benefits far outweigh the costs with the government predicting that the new-look route will bring nearly £2.5bn of benefits to the UK economy.
The immense upgrade took nearly six years to complete after construction started in November 2016. The final section opened in June 2022, just in time for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The project, called "Britain's biggest road building project for a generation," sought to boost the local economy of Cambridgeshire and connect more rural communities.
It also provides a strategic link between the A1 and the M11 motorway.
More than 85,000 people use the A14 road every day, with motorists now expected to save 20 minutes on their journeys thanks to the improvements.
Drivers can also experience wider sections of the existing road as well as more local access routes.
The upgrade includes the creation of the A1307 between Cambridge and Godmanchester.
The rebuild was a welcome boost to the market town of Huntington, which saw a new station car park, a major tree planting programme and the dismantling of the disused A14 railway viaduct on the East Coast Mainline.
Before the revamp, the A14 was frequently congested and traffic was often disrupted by breakdowns, accidents and roadworks.
In February this year, the old section of the A14, now designated as part of the A1307, was handed over to the Cambridgeshire County Council.
National Highways gave the council £25m to help maintain the road, including any resurfacing work and looking after street lighting, bridges, barriers, traffic lights, drainage and public rights of way.
Meanwhile, a project to plant more than 160,000 trees along the A14 in Cambridgeshire is nearly complete
The replanting project started after a 'large proportion' of trees previously planted along the route died during the original construction effort.
National Highways admitted that 75 percent of trees first planted along the route had died.
The replanting project was estimated to cost around £2.9m.